High Speeds In California - But Not For Everyone!

You might expect that in the heart of the Silicon Valley high speed internet would be a given, but that is not necessarily the case. Even if you can get access to the speeds you need you will have to pay the price. Yonah Diamond, CWA Organizer for Local 9415 can attest to that. He recently took the Speed Matters speed test in San Jose California and was amazed with the results. The Good News is he got great speed of 15 mb.  The Bad News is he was sitting in a conference room at an AT&T Data Center - NOT AT HOME!

Here is what Yonah had to say:

I was at and AT&T Data Center last week where we are trying to organize the four technicians in this non-union facility.  Per our card check agreement with AT&T, they had me all set up in a conference room, with data jacks wired and ready to go.  I plugged in on my laptop and thought, just for kicks, let me run the speed test from here.  I did it and came in at 15 megs.  I'd never seen anything that fast - even at the end of the speed test where it compares what your speed is to other countries and usually we're way down below everyone, this test came out ahead of every country except Japan.

I'm sitting here at home with DSL with 1319 kbps download speed and 325 upload--pitiful for the price that I am paying. Affordable high speed Internet for all Americans is needed now. From what I've read about promising new applications like Distance Learning, Telemedicine and E-Government, high speed access is crucial. The buildout of these high speed networks takes time and capital. For a friend of mine who live less than an hour from the San Francisco Bay area DSL isn't even available. We need a National Policy that will stimulate investment, guaranty minimum speeds and monitor reliability.

Roger Osburne is AT&T Contractual Vice President for CWA Local 9415 in Oakland, CA.